How long to make a knife... Just curious.

J

Jason Cutter

Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
1,419
Been very happy making knives, but one question keeps irking me... I keep getting asked "How long's it take you to make that ?"

I calculated that I probably spend 12-15hours of hands on work, not including the waiting times for tempering, freeze, epoxy setting time, oil drying time. Takes me another 2-3hours to complete a sheath. Altogether from start to finish takes me about 1week to complete one knife.

But thats me. my knives, my techniques and my pace. I'm curious - HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU OTHER GUYS TO MAKE A KNIFE (YOUR KNIFE, YOUR STYLE)? Hours, days, weeks, months, years ? One that makes you happy.
 
Jason I get that all the time too..
I can make a simple 3" O1 slabed knife,heat treated
in about 2 1/2 hours or less using 5 min epoxy
a torch and the wife's oven.
BUT you can spend many hours on more
complicated knives of course. that's not to much
time but again it's a simple one too. this is
one that I don't care much about doing
 
Days and days and weeks and weeks. I must be the slowest knifemaker on the forums. I could make more money at Burger King now that they raised the minimum wage to $7.10 hr. Its tempting to stop by for an application but I have one thing going for me they dont have....I love my job and may never retire. I only made 6 knives last year but thats mostly because Im only part time. Its nice to not have to rely on knife money any more. I make $16 hr whatching prisoners. I just couldnt get ahead making knives full time. Made it 3 years but couldnt pay my taxes or save money.
 
For a regular simple knife with bolsters and scales I figure it takes me about 20 hours. If I start hand rubbing and doing file work, double that. And yeah Bruce, I think we all probably make less than minimum wage! This is the most underpaid artform I know of, except maybe poetry. :D I'd rather be a knifemaker than anything else I could be.

Dave
 
Amen yea i am there with you guy's , This is not a well paid job, To answer the poster's question i average a knife about every 3 day's, day 1 is blade shape profile grind, 2 handle hand sanding buffing , 3 leather and touch up buffing like to remove water spot's after wet forming the leather. i figure about 7 - 10 hour's each day
 
One time a few years ago I did a time study on this subject, 20 knives in 2 lots of 10 each using 1/8" ATS34 hollow ground, machine finished with a scotch bright belt and sent to Mr. Paul for heat treat. Full tang not tapered, I drilled holes in the tang to help out the balance, handles of Marketa 1/4" thick were pined and epoxied on. I was trying to find out just how quick I could make a knife.
This worked out to about 1 1/4 hr. for the knife, these were stake knives no sheathes.
Other knives it takes several days to build the Bowie's, I may get 2 a week sometimes less.
Gib
 
Every bit of 14 days - includes time for cryo and a kydex sheath. If rushed, I may be able to turn one out in 10 days. The last two took at least 3 weeks per because I was interrupted by that nasty thing called 'day job'.

Roger
 
There's so many varables, I do mostly damascus knives anymore and a lot of them are mosaic, so by the time I weld up a billet, clean it up, cube it, butterfly it, reweld and cube again, then open it up, and forge a blade out of it. I might have over 20 hrs. in just the steel. then another 20 hrs. for grinding, sanding, finishing, etc. yeah, now that i think about it, its a long time. I never really have tried to keep track of the time on a knife, I don't think I want to either.;)

Just have fun and enjoy the ride, I've never been happier with a job, then the 1 I have right now. Not many can say that.

Bill
 
If had the capabilites to finish the blade on the grinder, I could do a simple 3" or so fixed blade (micarta or wood slabs, no bolsters etc.) in about 4 hours, not including tempering, epoxy setting and stuff.

I'd guess the last folder I made took about 10 hours, but that was incredibly simple. 3" blade, minimal filework on the spine,linen micarta slabs, and plain jane liners. All pinned together, no bolsters, no fancy stuff. Most folders have probably been more like 30 hours. I really don't keep track though.
 
Don't know exactly how long it takes but I do know that I'm too slow to make a living out of my knife making hobby. My hat's off to those that can make knifes full time and pay the bills.
 
Been known to toss one together in a couple of hours myself,But not anymore.I usually spend from 1 week on a skinner to 2-4 weeks on a Bowie.Thats part of why I have went back part time at the scrap yard.Maybe when the economy picks up again I will get to drop the part time hours and only make the knives again.
Good Luck.
Bruce
 
Been making for a spell and do not beleive I have ever made money, making knives. I am just to the point that sales pays for the supplies. Luckily I am retired and can afford to produce some to sell. Money and time is really not the issue for me, just doing something that I love to do.
Ken (wwjd)
 
The time issue is a strange one. I've gone through phases of getting quicker, or probably more efficient as a more accurate term. There are some really commonsense methods of increasing speed with "factory" style methods. Eg.- profilex10, grindx10, DON'T taper tangs !, nothing fancy, HTx10, slabbed handles, all materials already flat (eg.- Micarta), all cut, preshaped, pins ready to go, use 5minute epoxy etc. Kydex sheaths, no leather etc.

I wonder, is it a case of those who can and want to make 10 of a similar knife at once, differing in "speed" from those who concentrate on building 1 knife at a time because thats what makes them happy. I personally at once stage got time down to 3hours per knife from start to finish INCLUDING HT, with the abovementioned methods, but go little "spiritual" satisfaction from it. So back to one knife a week, start to finish, with sheath.

I do believe you when you say 2.5hours ;) The quickest I've ever made a knife was of 1/8th inch thick O-1, chisel ground 2inch blade after the HT (30minute temper), Canvas Micarta handles. - 105minutes start to finish.

Cheers. Jason. :D
 
Jason, I agree with you there is little satisfaction in production style knives and now don't build them any more. When I did it I was aiming at a specific market. I have found that the more higher priced knives sell better and are a lot more fun to make. As to my earlier post some of those knives were put into sheaths (dual use knives) and sold as utility/hunting knives, with not much success and I ended up giving a lot of them away. So much for the experiment, thy were really decent little knives for the price but did not sell very well. Gib
 
I am a very impatient character and just HAVE to get onto the next knife. After doing the 10x "processing," I heard possibly the best piece of advice from local knifemakers - Peter DelRaso and Shawn McIntyre.

"Every knife you make, make it like you're going to put it in for an award. See a scratch, take it out. Problems ? fix it. "

I'm not up for any awards, I don't think, but I literally forced myself to walk away from some projects to regain focus, come back tomorrow completely fresh and ready ...

The satisfaction factor went through the roof.

Thankfully, I don't have to makes knives for a living. Anytime you do something for a living, a fair proportion of it will be spent doing things you don't want to do. I applaud those of you who make it work out.

Cheers. Jason. :cool:
 
Jason, I suppose you could call me full time, I am retired and work when I want to which is most of the time and what little net money that comes in sure helps. It would be tuff trying to make a living out of knife making. Like you said it is the satisfaction factor that kinda keeps a guy going.
Gib
 
I think trying to make a living out of it would really spoil knifemaking for me. I'm happy to sell a few here and there to pay for my materials and tools but even that is tough to do. The quickest I have made a folder is one day to make a completed knife including heat treat and then several hours the following day to grind the blade and finish it up. I can complete about two knives per week when I'm cranking but it is rare that I have that much time in the shop. Plus I'm easily distracted....;)......and amused! :D
 
About an hour for a small kitchen knife, a lot longer for a scrimshawed bowie, and about 6 months and counting on a Scottish dirk with hand chased sterling fittings on sheath and handle.

It takes what it takes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top